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Twister Sister Summary - Offense abandons ISU in loss

The sisters are a group of walking wounded as Prins (knee), Williamson (thumb), Loz (ankle), and other bangs and bruises. The positive is that this would be Anna's debut for the season and she would make an impact in this game on limited minutes. As you read this keep in mind who we were playing. Michigan came into this game with one loss to mighty Maryland. They were getting approximately the same number of votes ISU had been garnering in the rankings. As my previous analysis had stated, they mirrored the Sisters in many ways. The game would show one glaring difference that would mean win or lose in this one…guard play.

The first half was a game of missed three pointers, rebounds, and turnovers. Obviously two of the three are not good statistically. Fortunately, some things did go well including some good defense and the necessary defensive rebounds limiting Michigan's looks. Pop was being her usual self cleaning up the boards but, unfortunately, she turned the ball over four times during the first stanza. The entire team ended up with 11 turnovers at the half. Moody was firing up three's left and right and unfortunately she was missing most of them as she only shot 1-10 for the half. Fortunately, Michigan would turn it over nearly as much which allowed ISU to stay close. The inside game was hurting nearly as much as the outside game. Missed bunnies and mishandled balls were the story of this one. After Michigan moved out to a 9-4 lead the ladies in red would battle back to tie it up and the rest of the half was a back and forth affair that ended with Michigan hitting the last shot to hold a 2 point lead 24-22.

The second half started off with ISU going on a 8-0 run to take a 6 point lead, obviously the biggest of the game for our women. Michigan would answer back and would move back in front 32-30 with a nice run of their own on the back of consecutive missed shots and a turnover by the sisters. Michigan couldn't take a breath though as Prins would hit a 3 and Jess would get a lay in after a nice feed by Pop as she caught her slicing to the hoop. This was a slugfest as this is probably the closest match personnel-wise I've seen in some time. Michigan and State would take their little runs back and forth. ISU had a 5 point run and Michigan answered with a 6 point run on two three pointers. Whoever said the 3 wasn't the great equalizer is just wrong. Midway through the second half and it was a 1 point Michigan lead. Michigan's little run was sandwiched around more missed three pointers which resulted in a one and done possession both times. In Iowa State's case the ladies would pick a horrible time to go nearly five minutes without a basket. Michigan wasn't much better but did just enough to pull out to a six point lead. Four and a half left and ISU was stuck on 37 points as Michigan rattled off 11 straight before ISU would attempt to answer back with free throws by Pop. She would make one and it was a five point game. Michigan would keep putting the pressure on from outside the arc hitting another 3, but Williamson would answer back to keep it close. Time was not our friend at this point as there was only 3 minutes left and our defense wasn't getting the stops we needed. Michigan was heating up and we really needed to step it up and get some stops. Big C would provide one answer by hitting a layup and getting fouled. This really hadn't been her day so far as she was only shooting 4-11 from the field. You couldn't dismiss effort or her rebounding though. She would miss the free throw which leads me to a very strange side note. To this point our ladies had only shot three free throws and only made one. Michigan wasn't getting much better luck as they also only had three. Unusual.

It all came down to Michigan burning clock now nursing a six point lead and the clock getting down to about one minute. Personally, this is when I thought the full court press was necessary. We continued to miss from deep and ISU began fouling…unfortunately their best free throw shooter. Remember my talk about free throw shooting recommendation of having the starters average over 80%? Michigan has four starters shooting over 80%. Pick your poison.

Schroll hit a three with :42 left in the game to narrow the lead to five. We threw on the full court press, but fouled the Michigan player as the trap was late arriving. Another dose of poison as Michigan's star guard Boylan calmly iced both of them pushing the lead back to 7. Quickly ISU would set up and this time it was Big C hitting a three and the lead was 4 with :28 left. Could we get a steal to keep them away from the line? The answer would be no. Michigan wisely got the ball to Boylan and she calmly swished each opportunity. One more miss from three by Prins and the game would be over. The sisters would lose another game 56-49.

To me, the result of this game came down to two critical factors that will weigh heavily on this team all year. Defense, or the lack thereof at key moments, allowed Michigan to build a lead while the other head of the snake - lack of offense - allowed Michigan to stretch that lead and run the clock down. It was too much to come back from and 8-1 Michigan made us pay. This was a good team we were playing folks. Our defense frustrated them throughout the game although the difference was that they hit key shots when we didn't. Our offense again was truly miserable as it has been much of the year.

So who did what in this game? The thing you can usually expect is the sisters will rebound. Pop and Big C led the way with 11 and 10 respectively. The Sisters would out rebound Michigan by 10 with the difference being on the offensive side where we had plenty of misses to recover. Jess and Big C would be the only double figure scorers on the squad, but Big C's shooting percentage was only 38% on 5 of 13 shooting. When Coach said this group needed to find a consistent scoring threat he was right. We haven't found her yet. The messy aspect of the game (18 turnovers) is one that has to be cleaned up and we all all know that is one of Fennelly's pet peeves.

What's next? It doesn't get any easier and perhaps a bit tougher. A loaded Iowa Hawkeye club comes to town on Wednesday smarting from a close overtime loss at K-State. They have size, speed and the ability to score. Our girls had best be ready or Iowa could make a repeat of last season's outcome.

Re: Twister Sister Summary - Offense abandons ISU in loss

More like the "ISU abandons offense" rather that offense abandons ISU. Good news is that if we get even some offense we will start winning considering the defense we play. Having to play Cole for more than 30 minutes really hurts the offense but probably not much choice with Mansfield hobbled. Hope Moody can settle in some and not jack up a three every couple of minutes.

Re: Twister Sister Summary - Offense abandons ISU in loss

Originally Posted by BoxsterCy

More like the "ISU abandons offense" rather that offense abandons ISU. Good news is that if we get even some offense we will start winning considering the defense we play. Having to play Cole for more than 30 minutes really hurts the offense but probably not much choice with Mansfield hobbled. Hope Moody can settle in some and not jack up a three every couple of minutes.

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